The 2025-26 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 19, 2025 - The shift from a mix of state and federal funds in 2024-25 to all General Fund in 2025-26 is largely due to the end of a federal policy allowing states to temporarily replace stolen SNAP benefits using federal funds from October 1, 2022 to December 31, 2024 (California has therefore returned to replacing any stolen benefits with state funds, as was its practice before October 2022).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4971

The 2024-25 Budget: Food Assistance Programs

Feb 16, 2024 - CalSAWS was introduced in 2019 and, as of October 2023, all 58 counties use the system. The federal government helps manage an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system which deposits monthly benefits for CalFresh and other human services pr ograms onto cards to be used at grocery and convenience store checkout counters.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4845

The 2024-25 California Spending Plan: Human Services

Oct 2, 2024 - Benefit issuances began in March  2022. The pilot was originally scheduled to end in February 2023, subject to available funding. However, in November 2022, the pilot was extended until October 31, 2023 due to remaining allocated funds.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4933/3

The 2026-27 Budget: Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) Program

Mar 3, 2026 - SSP Grants Were Increased in 2016-17, 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24.  Since the Great Recession, as seen in Figure  2, grants for individuals and couples have been increased four times —in 2016-17 (by 2.76  percent), 2021-22 (by 23.95  percent), 2022-23 (by 10.3  percent), and 2023-24 (by 9.2  percent).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5148

The 2024-25 Budget: Child Support

Feb 27, 2024 - Given we estimated the Governor ’s budget solved a $58  billion budget problem —and revenues continue to deteriorate —the administration likely will not implement the full passthrough to current CalWORKs families as part of the May Revision.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4861

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Welfare

Mar 3, 2026 - Center for Excellence $750,000 ongoing beginning in 2022 ‑23. Emergency Response Augmentation $50 million one ‑time in 2021 ‑22 and again in 2022 ‑23, expendable for four years (through June 30, 2026 for the later allocation).
https://lao.ca.gov/publications/report/5147

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Human Services

Nov 21, 2025 - As of the May Revise, the administration estimated that $75  million in savings could be found through DSS operational improvements in 2025-26. It is our understanding that these savings would come from the IHSS program.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5086/4

Trends in CalWORKs: Participant Characteristics

Jun 16, 2025 - In 2023, about 71  percent of TANF recipients nationwide were children, compared to about 75  percent of CalWORKs participants. CalWORKs and TANF caseload data are not directly comparable, as California provides state ‑funded benefits to some recipients who may not meet federal TANF requirements, such as children of some timed ‑out adults.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5057

The 2024-25 Budget: Child Care

Apr 15, 2024 - Of these funds, $58  million is provided to cover costs associated with Bridge child care vouchers. In the past, the state has also drawn down between $10  million and $20  million in additional federal Title IV ‑E funds to partially cover Bridge voucher costs.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4893

The 2022-23 Budget: Analysis of Child Support Program Proposals

Feb 18, 2022 - The  remaining 75  percent of these former CalWORKs cases no longer have an active child support order, likely because their child has reached adulthood. Governor ’s Cost Estimates May Change Based on Actual 2022 ‑23 Collection Levels.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4550